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As part of its Strategic Business Plan, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is working with its partners in the transit industry to increase public transportation ridership by at least 1% nationwide over the previous year. In order to support this critical and challenging goal, the FTA Office of Budget and Policy elected to conduct pilot ridership site visits at transit agencies that experienced a decrease in ridership in recent years. The reviews were intended to identify opportunities where improvements in transit ridership could be made and to provide technical assistance to the transit agencies.
FTA conducted its first review at CT Transit in Hartford, Connecticut from July 25-28, 2005, its second review at CTRAN in Clark County, Washington from August 15-18, 2005, its third review at SamTrans in San Carlos, California from March 27-30, 2006, its fourth review at the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) in Troy, Michigan from May 22-25, 2006 and its fifth review at the Riverside Transit Agency (RTA) in Riverside, California from April 16-19, 2007. Ridership Teams comprehensively examined each agency’s bus system to identify opportunities that may exist for improving ridership. The teams were composed of FTA headquarters and regional staff, as well as experts from transit agencies across the United States.
The Ridership Team members met with CT Transit, CTRAN, SamTrans and SMART employees with expertise in each focus area, reviewed operational data, actively observed bus operations at peak and off-peak travel times, and spoke with operators and members of the riding public. Each team member reviewed one of five functional areas in which ridership initiatives could be undertaken: service coverage and routes, fare structures, operations and service quality, marketing, and partnerships.
CT Transit, CTRAN, and SamTrans, and SMART developed implementation plans for the recommendations that they chose to adopt. They include measurement protocols to track each recommendation’s impact on ridership over time. Over a period of one to two years, FTA will continue to monitor the impacts on ridership and advise both agencies as needed.
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